Different Designs for Better Airplane Lifts

Problem Scenario

Airplanes are recently very aerodynamic and well made but is there anyway to improve that feature of wing designs?

Broad Question

What's the best wing design?

Specific Question

Which wing design creates the greatest lift?

Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that the DC-3 will have the greatest lift.

Graph of Hypothesis

---

Variables

Independent Variable:

Wing Design

Dependent Variable: Greatest Lift

Variables That Need To Be Controlled: Wing Mass, Wing Speed, Wing Angles

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

-Newtons: Force and Lift

---

---

---

---

General Plan

I am testing the greatest lift according to the best wing design. This is suppose to prove the best wing design for future airplane concepts. These planes will be made out paper and be placed on a platform with a string attached under the airplane and through a hole in the table. Then get a fan and place in a position in front of the airplane on the table. After, take the string and put it on the force-senso
r and then it should calculate your lift.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Wind draft affecting plane position and movement: Try to keep indoors and leave no door/windows open for best flight.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

Possible paper cuts building the airplane.
Do not put your fingers in the fan.

Experimental Design

I will measure the greatest lift of four paper airplanes to calculate in newton. This will prove the best wing design for future airplane concepts.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Where will you get this	Estimated Cost
Poster Board	Staples	$5.00
Paper	House	$0.00
Table	House	$0.00
Force Sensor	School	$0.00
String	House	$0.00

Data Table

Time Line

---

---

---

---

Background Research

Airplanes in general are very complex ranging from small jetliners to large continental airways. They can definitely range in quite a few ways but wing designs are even more important to the airplane because they do not just control direction but they also control lift.
The wings of an airplane have to be very precise to accompany best air flight. If any measurements are wrong or off-set the plane will not achieve best flight. Selecting the wing span is one of the most basic decisions to made in the design of a wing. The span is sometimes constrained by contest rules, hangar size, or ground facilities but when it is not people might decide to use the largest span consistent with structural dynamic constraints (flutter). This would reduce the induced drag directly. Basically, if the span of an airplane is correctly made and it is created properly, the dynamics of this will work the best. There are quite of few wing designs that are very good. Many common ones like the dragonfly or the triangle design are very aerodynamic.
Now, moving on to actual flight and take there is a special term that is used to preform lift. This term is called, "Newtons". The newton (symbol N) is the SI derived unit of force. It is named after Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on classical mechanics, specifically Newton's second law of nature. In simpler terms newtons means force. In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a certain change, either concerning its movement, direction, or geometrical construction. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (which includes to begin moving from a state of rest) and to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform. Force can also be described by intuitive concepts such as a push or pull. A force has both magnitude and direction, making it a vector quantity. An example of newtons or force would be: The force of Earth's gravity on a human being with a mass of 70 kg is approximately 686 N.
Human flight has become a tired fact of modern life. At any given moment, roughly 5,000 airplanes crisscross the skies above the United States alone, amounting to an estimated 64 million commercial and private takeoffs every year. Consider the rest of the world's flight activity, and the grand total is incalculable. It is easy to take the physics of flight for granted, as well as the ways in which we exploit them to achieve flight. We often glimpse a plane in the sky with no greater understanding of the principles involved than a caveman. Physicists classify both liquids and gases as fluids, based on how they flow. Even though air, water and pancake syrup may seem like very different substances but they all conform to the same set of mathematical relationships. In fact, basic aerodynamic tests are sometimes performed underwater. To put it simply, a salmon essentially flies through the sea, and a pelican swims through the air. The core of the matter is this: Even a clear sky isn't empty. Our atmosphere is a massive fluid layer, and the right application of physics makes it possible for humans to traverse it.
Now as you can see there are many balances and subjects to preform lift of an airplane. Airplanes work in many ways ranging from wings to the actual engine inside. Knowing how an airplane works, what it is made of, what force is, and just basic aviation background skills the transportation we see now will be just history in a blink of an eye.

References

"About Airfoils for Flying Model Aircraft." Airfield Models. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. <http://www.airfieldmodels.com/information_source/math_and_science_of_model_aircraft/rc_aircraft_design/plotting_airfoils/about_airfoils.htm>.

"Wing Design Parameters." Aircraft Aerodynamics and Design Group. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://adg.stanford.edu/aa241/wingdesign/wingparams.html>.

Detailed Procedure

The first step to do this experiment, you will need some supplies. You will need 4 pieces of paper, a fan, a force-sensor, a table that can be drilled a hole through, and some hand skills to fold paper in airplanes. The second step to do this process is take the force-sensor and put it in a position where it doesn't get in the way of the airplane. Then tie the string to the force-sensor and to the airplane through the table hole. Then you will be ready to collect data. Just place the fan in front of the airplane and turn it on. Finally, you will get your results as the experiment works.

---

---

---

---

---

Results

Average Data of all four airplanes: Custom: 0.8846, DC-1: 0.108, Stealth: 0.1998, Ring: -0.095
The Custom was the best airplane in flight and wing design within 4 of these airplanes.

All Raw Data

There is too much data to be in. If you want to know, more than 8,000 data points.

Graphs

Photos

Force Sensor Stealth Ring Custom

DC-3

DC-3

---

---

---

---

---

Data Analysis

The data analysis within four of these airplanes was worth doing and it worked the way I thought it would. As you can see that the Custom 1 airplane has the highest average I would consider this to be the best one. Not just because of all the numbers and calculations but with some senses such as seeing and feeling it. As you can see the graph above it compares the differences between the four airplanes.

Conclusion

Now as you can see all the data is now spread out in graphs and is easier to see. As I refer back to my specific question, "Which wing design creates the greatest lift?", I was wrong because I hypothesized that the DC-3 will have the greatest lift and the Custom had the greatest lift instead. This all relied on the type of wing design. Either having a wide triangular wing design or a slim triangular design can change the whole flight of the airplane. Now that the two other airplanes have been eliminated from this experiment due low force or lack of wing design, this is a short glimpse of how some airplanes in the future can achieve better flight and wing designs.

---

---

---

---

---

Discussion

The data that I recorded showed the best wing designs between four types of wings. After collecting the data I found out that my hypothesis was not what I expected. Instead the data showed that the Custom Airplane Wing had the best results and average data spread out into a graph. To answer the of the experiment question I was able to collect the data and find the answer to my broad question. As I was collecting data, I ran into some problems. When I used the force sensor and collected my data for the Ring design, I collected five graphs for each airplane over a course of ten seconds to collect many data points. As a result of that each five graphs with data were then put in as an average to simplify the amount of data. When I ran into the Ring design, I collected all the data but for some reason, when I plugged the data into the computer the fifth graph was messed up and there were many more data points than there should've been. Though I wanted to continue but I could not fix that due to setting everything up again of that error. Even though the Ring design average would only have four graphs I concluded that this wing design would not do well in flight time. To prove that it wouldn't fly many data points were very low with force. Going back to my hypothesis I can say that the DC-3 was the second to last worst result airplane of these four. I was very surprised because to me the wing design looks very well made but I guess not everything goes as thought and seen.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

There are quite a few benefits to this experiment of the community, science, and even world. At first, I can say that as I built these airplanes for better wing designs I thoughtfully said that, "When I build and finish these wing designs there are more chances of future airplane concepts". Especially, they will be safer to everybody and transportation in them would be faster and higher quality. As of now we can see that we have gotten pretty far in air transit but there are always many more possibilities to come. This also helps the community around us because if transit helps the world it must help the community. There is not too much of help to science but it does prove wing lifts and forces of them.

Abstract

My experiment was based on air flight wing designs and force to make an airplane lift. The way I collected my data was by using a force meter and sensor. I recorded a period of ten seconds to get my data for each graph and there were about a total of 8,000 data points with all the graphs included. My specific question was," Which wing design creates the greatest lift", which leads to my hypothesis of, " The DC-3 will have the greatest lift". When I went over my results I found out that my hypothesis was not what I intended. The actual best wing design was the Custom. As I went over my graphs I found out that they were successful and showed accurate information that you could possibly see in a real airplane test. I decided to choose this topic because I found out that force and air transportation is an interesting topic to choose. Therefore I can say that wing designs will improve in the future with some upcoming concepts.